Looks like the best part was worth the deal. I can't find a pic of the C-47
you probably flew but it should be somwhere..
Take care
ciao
Fabio

ha scritto nel messaggio
g.com...
The bad part was that I got there from Rome (where I was living at the
time)
to have the medical personnel at the Base evaluate the case of Hepatitis B
I
had contracted. Obviously, I got over it, though I was flat on my back in
bed for 63 days straight during the school year, and after my return to
school was a good year getting my strength fully back.

The great part was how I got to Aviano. My Dad was a rated USAF pilot
stationed at a pointless little "flight service" unit at Ciampino Air Base
outside Rome after doing a year in Vietnam. There were two USAF C-47s at
Ciampino, and he was able to fly me up there and back twice in the one his
unit could use to log hours and get monthly flight pay.

THAT was fabulous! A bucket seat in a shaking, vibrating and noisy WWII
era aircraft looking out the window at the R-1830 and Ham Standard prop
scant feet away, plus a few stretches where I got to take the controls in
the pilot's seat as we headed North. And the absolute best part was
sitting
on the engineer's fold out jump seat just behind and between the two
pilots'
seats as we made a steep descent and landing approach, then touched down
on
the runway with those dramatic mountains off to the left. THAT's why I
remember them so vividly. The sight is really burned into my memory.

The two flights up and back in the C-47 were almost worth getting sick!
They were never-to-be-forgotten journeys the way flight was meant to be
experienced, versus the antiseptic, sardine can misery of flying
commercial
today.

Brian